Grandmas! You can never get enough of ‘em!

Hey people! I expect you all have been in excellent spirits. I can at least say that I have been so with some occasional downers. As you would have previously read, I would be moving to USA in early September and thus, have a lot of people to bid goodbye. Well this wasn’t something which I had thought of just after booking my ticket to be honest. It actually came to my mind when I visited my grandma earlier this week.

It was a wonderful one-week sojourn. I mean it had its shortcomings but still, was worth cherishing.

One of the best things about my grandma is that she cooks awesome food. Wait! Not awesome. Awesome Possum guys! Almost every day I got some traditionally cooked vegetable (of which I had no clue) and it turned out to be a connoisseur’s treat. The unknown, however, delicious treats still catch me unawares. Also grandma’s place had this collection of old editions of some kickass books. I found some masterpieces dated older than the 1970s. 

All of the above mentioned pros made up for the technological rehab I experienced during my stay. You must be wondering what the rehab was about. No Wi-Fi access. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I didn’t have my laptop or phone but still it was a fuss. 

All these aesthetic factors apart, the best thing that made this endeavor worth sharing was………my grandma. For me, she is this guardian angel who looks out for everyone.

To be succinct, I love my grandma.

I am sure all of you have felt the same at some point of time. 

Thanks for reading my thoughts. I trust they were worth reading.

Until next time, this is Twoccer signing off.
Despedida

The Final Breakthrough

Hola people, I hope you’re doing awesome.

I got to tell you that this is the first time I feel like blogging on and on. To be frank, all my previous posts were done out of an urge to sustain a continuity in the archives. You can yourself observe that most of my posts are a month apart or at least a fortnight apart.

Why do I feel this way?

You’ll know it in a moment.

It was the 14^th of July ’11 when I was scheduled to meet my uncle. Dad and I started for the place in the morning. My uncle had been busy with his last chores as his whole family was moving to USA later this month. Both parties were finally able to convene in the evening with exhaustion visible on all our faces. I guess you’d be wondering as to why there was such a need for a conference. Don’t start biting your nails guys! I was myself in such a semi-state. But I had concluded that this was my first critical talk about college, mind you. Finally my uncle sets in the initiative and the talks begin. To sum all of it in a couple of sentences, we discussed three focal things - my commitment to college, the whole financial stuff and housing. There was no room for error on anyone’s part and I am happy that I played out my role without reserve. It was a no-nonsense 15-minute session. After all this ended, we dropped off my uncle to the airport whence he left for home.

Well I was happy about all of it but it still wasn’t reason enough for me to be ecstatic. Two days later, a mail comes from my uncle giving the probable dates for my arrival in USA as he would be the one who would receive me at the airport. I forwarded the dates to dad so that he could finally book my ticket. And voila! My air ticket was finally booked for 4^th September ’11. I know all of this had to follow course after I had got my visa but still it felt great to hold the e-ticket hard-copy in my hands. What did all of it mean? It signaled that I had to start gearing up for college.

I can’t comment about anyone else but I know for a fact that I was on cloud nine.

After a millennium, I was finally going to USA for four long years. How does that feel for a start? :)

I am raring to go to meet all my UW friends in September. See you guys!

I hope this post made for joyful reading as it was certainly fun writing.

For now, this is Twoccer signing off!

Despedida.

Sheer Exuberance

A very prosperous day to you all. Thanks for giving my last post a thought. I highly appreciate it.

I have been very happy the last week or so. Jeez, I love this energetic feeling which was missing for a long time. Previously, you were told that I went for my visa interview which turned out to be a dream come true. Even though the visa officers say that visa has been approved, people feel hexed for a moment and can't decide for sure whether the paramount word was 'APPROVED' or .......'REJECTED'. Exiting the consulate, I had a somewhat similar feeling till I looked into the leaflet that had been given to me. The first statement was 'Your visa has been approved'. The statement was cemented into the corner of my mind. I know most of you must be thinking that I am obsessing you with the details but for a moment, put yourself in my shoes. 

Well I came back home and waited for the passport to be fully processed so that I could finally fetch it. But as it happens, the next couple of days were holidays which delayed my visa. Finally an email came on the 7th that the shipment had reached the requested location and it can be collected. We made a 3-hour long journey to the HAL (Hold-at-Location) just to be told that all the shipments had been shifted to some other depot w.e.f from 7th July '11. We kept our patience, noted down the address and left. This other building seemed a much better place than the one we had just been to. The attendant asked for my identity for verification. Once he realized that everything was in order, the package was handed over to me.

I looked at it for a minute going over all the effort I had put in for this small yet huge envelope in my hand. Once in the car, my hands themselves started working upon the package, loosening the stapler pins and ripping apart the glued paper strip. As I turned it upside down, the contents swished down onto my lap. If seen with a pedestrian eye, nothing was out of the ordinary among the contents. The documents that I had deposited during the interview had been returned to me in a very seemingly untouched state except for one thing. A page of the passport was occupied by a simple yet elegant piece of paper. My eyes were fixed at it for I don't know how long! 

It was sheer exuberance.

Here are some of the pics of the package which may seem banal to some. Please don't hide the feeling :-P

The envelope 

You know...just in case! LOL

Hope you enjoyed reading my train of thought.

Will keep you posted on further updates.

Till then, this is Twoccer signing off.
Abschied!

The Right Way

Hey guys! Hope you've been in the best of spirits. Well I've been feeling this way lately and I should say, it does feel good. You would remember I told you in my last post that I was having fun even though life had been downhill for me. When I returned home after my vacation, whiling away time became very difficult. Why? 'Cause there was nothing to do. I don't think a sound Homo sapien has the capacity to amuse himself the whole time by Facebook, movies, soaps, music, video games etcetera. In the end, everyone gets fed up one way or the other. For me, it was the same story until a new development took place.

Well, the new development was my visa process which kept me equipped with chores. I had to file for my visa interview which took a significant amount of time. Almost 5-6 days later, I had my visa interview. It was an interesting yet shaking experience. I mean, this was my last chance to prove my worth. So I was a bit disturbed. Although most of my friends had already gotten their visa approved, you don't feel confident till you yourself stand shoulder to shoulder with them. As is with all major things, you do a lot of introspecting and planning as to how will things work out during the final play. Documents and testimonials are a crucial part of the visa process. It took me a lot of time collecting all the needed credentials and I was amazed to see the countless archives in my grasp.

The time had come for the final showdown and I arrived at the consulate for the interview. The security officials outside checked my passport and interview letter and asked me to go inside. Inside, I had to pass through a thorough security check followed by document verification. After all this, I had to wait for my token number to be called for further processing. Never-ending time later, it was my turn to be in the battlefront. The first counter was for digitally authorizing my documents. The lady behind the counter was a sweet Indian lady with a nice sense of humor. Next was fingerprinting which was done by an American guy. All this was pretty easy. Here came the hard part! The interview. It was a little over 5 minutes when my number was called. The visa interviewer was a nice-looking American lady. She asked me a few questions to assert my confidence and fluency. Finally, I heard the words that I had so longed to hear. I mean I had dreamed every night about this day and its outcome. What were the words? And I quote, "So Dhruv, your visa has been approved. You can collect it after a few days." I couldn't realize what had just happened until I left the building. That was when I envisaged my moment of total triumph. It felt tremendously satisfying. All those days of  running here and there preparing for the damn thing had finally earned me everlasting happiness. I don't care if people found it a normal thing because visa approval is an everyday process for them. For me, it meant everything during that split second.

But after a day or two, I was back to my everyday routine again. Trying to loiter away time was again getting difficult. To top it all, my session was supposedly in mid-September. Can you imagine spending two months at home doing nothing when everyone else around you seems to be busy with their own agendas. That's my routine for you, my friends! But every once in a while, thinking about those beautiful words proves helpful.

I hope you find my thoughts worth reading.

Will keep you posted.

This is Twoccer signing off.
Arrivederci.